Delain – Hunter’s Moon

Label: Napalm Records
Releasedate: 22.02.2019

Delain is back in 2019 with their EP called Hunter’s Moon. This is the last one of the Moon trilogy that started with Lunar Prelude EP and then the subsequent Moonbathers full length album.

There were no eponymous songs in the previous releases of the Moon trilogy but this time in this EP, there is an eponymous song called “Hunter’s Moon” and I can’t really decide if that’s my favorite off the album or the first released single, “Masters Of Destiny“…

There are 4 new Delain songs on this EP, they are respectively “Master’s of Destiny“, “Hunter’s Moon“, “This Silence is Mine” and “Art Kills“. The other 10 songs in the EP are selected recordings of their live performances at Tivoli,in the band’s hometown Utrecht. In these live songs, a familiar name to symphonic metal and Delain fans, Marco Hietala of Nightwish accompanies Charlotte Wessels as the guest vocal.

So, I would like to talk about the new tracks. I’ve first heard of Masters of Destiny because it has an official music video, the song starts with melody of a some kind of a Wiccan-esque chant which also matches the theme of the video that’s shot in Iceland. You hear the plea of a victim of her destiny first and then she becomes powerful and strong and believes that she can be the master of her destiny. The basic teaching of self-love and acceptance; stop feeling sorry for yourself and start owning your life and path. Delain songs have always been empowering, hence the song is called Masters of Destiny, not “Victims of Destiny”. Ha ha.

The second track “Hunter’s Moon” has the classic Delain sound, and I’m not meaning this in a negative way, I totally love the melodic catchiness and the anthem-like sound of it. It still sounds fresh. There is this dichotomy between the scream vocals and Wessel’s sweet siren voice in chorus parts. Next track, “This Silence Is Mine” is definitely an epic one. It almost starts as a Muse song with an enigmatic piano intro and then it goes on with dynamic synths. I dig the changing moods and the contrast between the epic guitar solos and silent bass vocals of Charlotte. It’s a short track but the band displays their instrumental dexterity and the quality of sound production shines like a black diamond in this one. Lastly, we have “Art Kills”. It is probably gonna be the hit off the EP. The lyrics are critical of today’s world as in the previous Delain albums; a like-minded song, “The Tragedy Of The Commons” comes to mind from The Human Contradiction album. The lyrics read; “We weave our tapestry too tight around the Earth, we built a house and wrecked a home… Art kills the artist!”

I like all the metaphors, there’s no need for deep analysis here… The greediness and the technology we create as human beings are going to be the end of us, so we are kind of the snake eating its own tail. These are sadly all the correct analogies of our situation in today’s world. I hail the band for the positive empowering lyrics like in “Masters of Destiny” and also for the ones that are full of awareness like in “Art Kills”. So all the kudos to them.

Somehow at the end of these 4 new songs, you are left with wanting to hear more fresh stuff, it definitely left me with the feeling of looking forward to the next full length album. Give it an ear if you would like to get a taste of the ultimate Symphonic Euro Metal with a female lead.

Line up:

Martijn Westerholt – Keys

Charlotte Wessels – Vocals

Timo Somers – Guitars

Merel Bechtold – Guitars

Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije – Bass

Joey Marin de Boer – Drums

Links:

/https://www.facebook.com/delainmusic/
http://www.delain.nl/